Mexican minimalist cinema : articulating the (trans)national

In the article I aim to identify and analyse the specific elements of the Mexican minimalistic cinema (minimalismo mexicano) in both transnational and national contexts. Mexican minimalistic cinema is a relatively new phenomenon that arose in Mexico around the year 2002 and is now widely regarded as one of the most important phenomena in the world cinema. It is often considered to be a subdivision of slow cinema, since it utilises similar formal and narrative devices. While the researchers generally focus on the universal, supranational aspects of the slow films, I intend to expose how the Mexican filmmakers make use of the aesthetic and storytelling devices deriving from the slow cinema to comment on Mexican cultural traditions, current social and political issues, notions of national mythologies and history. The first part of the article focuses on the category of "transnationality" in the context of film studies, and the basic characteristics of Mexican minimalist cinema as the transnational cinema. The last part is devoted to the analyses of "Heli" (2013, dir. Amat Escalante) and "Lake Tahoe" (2009, dir. Fernando Eimbcke) - the two examples of Mexican minimalist films that, despite their transnational appeal, are deeply rooted in national preoccupations.